Ashes 2019: Peter Siddle hits out at Steve Harmison for his ‘cheat’ comment on Steve Smith

Former Australia captain Steve Smith has redeemed himself with some exceptional batting in the ongoing Ashes in England. He has so far amassed 671 runs in just five innings with 82 being the lowest and has comfortably reclaimed the number 1 position in the ICC Test rankings for the batsmen toppling the Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

He, along with David Warner, was banned for 12 months after the infamous ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March last year. Many had doubted the way he would come back, especially in Tests, after suffering such a setback in his career. But the way Smith has bounced back has been incredible and all are in his awe for the same. But the former England cricketer Steve Harmison thinks differently.

He feels that Smith will always be known as a cheat until the end of his cricketing career irrespective of his achievements on the field. “I don’t think you can forgive him. When you’re known as a cheat – and he is, I’m not going to sugar-coat it – that’s on your CV. You’re marked and you take it to the grave. Whatever Steve Smith does, he’ll always be remembered for what happened in South Africa,” Harmison had said.

It’s more of a laugh than anything

Australia pacer Peter Siddle has now come out in support of Steve Smith and has slammed the 40-year-old for his comments. He mentioned that Harmison’s statement is laughable and recalled how a couple of England players have admitted to sugar-coating the ball to get it reversed during the 2005 Ashes series.

“It’s more of a laugh than anything because we know some stories about what has gone on in the past. A couple of his teammates from back then put out books since the ‘05 Ashes and talked about sugar-coating the cricket ball to get reverse swing in that series.

” That’s the irony in all that, that he actually used the word sugar-coat, when two of his teammates have talked about mints and different things to put on the ball. It actually comes back on him,” Siddle said while speaking to SEN SA Breakfast.

For Peter Siddle, Steve Smith has put all the talks to rest with his superb batting and deserves to be praised for what he has done so far in the series. “We’ll have the last laugh about that, and I think Steve Smith has definitely put those to rest and he’s just done his talking with the bat,” the 34-year-old pacer further added. With one more Test still to go, Smith will be looking to add more runs to his tally at the Kia Oval and help Australia win the series by 3-1.